Banishment Dust
by ymli
Summary: So, in "Take my life. Please" [TlaToJL] we find out banishment dust smells like chocolate. Zak Saturday ponders on this as he and Juniper Lee are on a small mission after the end of the Fusion war. Zakiper/JuniZak shortfic. FusionFall AU


Here's a short fic i wrote last year and tried to continue! Maybe one day I'll continue or expand on this with more but for now it's just a really nice idea.

Mostly genfic. Juniper Lee/Zak Saturday in a FusionFall AU: post Fusion war; smell descriptions.

Disclaimer: Obviously, I do not own either The Secret Saturdays, The Life and Times of Juniper Lee or the idea that these two would have worked together during or after a multi-crossover game like Fusion Fall… but just a few points that I keep writing by: there's about a year gap between June(17) and Zak(16); They met briefly in Orchid Bay so that's why Zak knows a bit of June's family.

so, in "Take my life. Please" [TlaToJL] we find out banishment dust smells like chocolate.

* * *

He held his hands near his face briefly.

Huh. Chocolate.

If it wasn't for Ray Ray, he would never have known the smell was actually from banishment dust, carefully stored in her secret pockets. He just didn't think it'd be quite that strong. This was the smell accompanying her whenever she passed by, along with soft older smells, like glass and books with mud, sweat and grass mixed in... He kinda wondered though how many times people noticed the different smell of chocolate was way different from what chocolate should smell like.

Right now for instance, her hands had been _really_ sweaty and there was something musty about the smell left behind, but the distinct sweet and fresh tinge was still there.

June had taken a few small packets out of her back pocket (how they fit there, Zak had no clue) and silently passed them into his hands. "Keep them dry and keep them safe. You might need them later." They felt like someone covered lemon lozenges in dry but used mustard plasters. He didn't smell them cause they looked the part too.

Zak kept looking at the small packs and stored them away in a compartment in The Claw. "You got it, chief!" he whispered back and a wink and a smile slid through.

"Just make sure to use the right passag-" is all he could hear of the rest of the explanation as slabs of bedrock fell on the path. "Ah!"

* * *

How didn't he notice these before? They were in a cave inside a low mountain but the walls had been shifting a bit before, there were subtle signs everywhere and-

"Zak?" she whispered as the movements stopped. "You okay?"

He looked at his foot. It was much darker suddenly and all he could actually do is feel that it was probably stuck. "My entire foot's under something and I can't see. I can feel the rocks on my left side though."

He heard her sigh with bated breath on the other side of the darkness.

"Okay. Listen. I can't break through, so here's another idea." Zak listened closely.

"Remember those packets I gave you?" Zak drew the compartment next to his other hand. Dry and soft lozenges again.

"Take two between your index and middle sure that the packets are placed flat between them. Got it?"

"Yeah?" He tried to be just as quiet and forward with his responses without disturbing another the walls to another slide.

"Now… Pull your thumb and those two fingers _slowly_ together so the thumb connects to the second packet. Pull your smallest finger away from the rest. The tip of the index should be lined with the small finger."

"I think I got it?"

"Find the wall just six inches above your foot. That's gonna be your target." Zak suddenly realized what he was about to do.

"Then pull your body as far away as possible. Two taps with the thumb, sling from your elbow and flick both against the spot you measured."

He did as told and listened as the two small projectiles _thfoomped_ against the walls and the area started poofing away, revealing light and his partner on the other side. She was grinning side to side with brows knit in a worry.  
"Phew!" The backpack she'd been carrying was put on the side and some trinkets and the staffs in her expanding bag had spilled out.

"Now lets get foot of yours looked at."

Passing through he could suddenly smell even more chocolate, stronger although not quite as loud as the smell of June's hands earlier.  
Was she used to using a lot of those?

Zak locked arms with her for support as they headed towards a safer path. As they stopped to check on his foot, he tried to find questions to the solution she'd given him.

'I can't believe that worked.' What he'd done just now was banish a few slabs of rock. He'd never seen June use the dust before but knew from all the laser and orb and stone banishments that it was a pretty big deal. Ray Ray had told Zak about what banishment _probably_ was like.

' _A barren wasteland, with months and years and lifetimes of age, just to get heavy on churros and donuts._ '

" _The final destination for an oh-so-many to cross with the Lee fam!_ "

" **Never** get in the way of June banishing something, but also, _also_ , never-ever, **ever** , use it yourself unless as a last resort." That's as much as Ray Ray had told him about it. _Reeaaally_ rung in his head now.

"Hey… have you used that a lot? Isn't that usually reserved for like, demon baddies and stuff? Won't you get into trouble for what I did right now?"

"Well….. Not really. This was an emergency though so I'm sure the folks dealing with banishment can deal with a few rocks." They took a turn at an emerging passage-way and sat down gingerly.

"Besides. Those were evil rocks to catch you like that."

Catching a breath he saw her rustling through her bag again.

"So. I have some healing potions in my bag and a few non-carbo drinks. Wanna share?"

They sat there for a while examining his foot and taking a food break. It wasn't actually a bad injury and miraculously, the foot wasn't crushed even a little bit, just a little sprained from the shift in positions the rock slide created. Juniper told him it would heal in just a few minutes thanks to the small glass bottle of purple-blue potion she carried around.

"Man, I should have brought my Wand of Reduction with me, just to be on the safe side, but I didn't think we'd need it. Really should have expected something like this inside a mountain…" She paused. "So…." She looked at him pensively and her face was a mixed bag of regret. Her eyes trailed from him to her left side.

"…. I guess it's basically my fault that I even got us on this mission. Boy did Dexter ever over-shoot with those statistics….."

"June! You know I wouldn't have gone with you if I didn't think just the both of us could handle it. You're being too hard on yourself! " At this she looked back at him and gave a sturdier smile than before. "Besides! I can totally take what's coming at me! You don't need to worry about me that much." There were re-assuring smiles on both their faces.

"Yeah, you're right. I can't possibly expect every possible scenario, even on a simpler mission." Another less guilty apologetic smile."…..Just human after all!" …and a … more awkward smile… he huffed out a content sigh as he looked up at her. His friends didn't to worry about him that much, after, he wasn't quite that human.

Then, Zak remembered something about before.

"Actually…. I heard something else with the shifting before the rubble. I thought you heard it too but if you didn't…." June made a small two-turn headshake. "... Then I guess it must something cryptid-like. Could be native to this mountain, even fusion-spawned for all we know. But it seems like they didn't make any audible sounds so they could be emitting sounds only I as a… _Cryptozoologist_ could hear." Okay, so that was a small lie, but a necessary one to avoid anyone knowing about his Kur-related past.

"Well alright, science-boy. Let's gear up."

* * *

Explanations for anyone unfamiliar with their shows:

Zak Saturday is the son of two secret scientists, has cryptids as siblings and if you get to the end of the show... I promise. There will be more cryptids and secrets on the way. In a 2014 episode of Ben 10 Omniverse, the Saturdays make an appearance and Zak is already a practicing almost-cryptozoologist. In FF he and his family exist in the future.

Juniper is a fairly average Chinese-American girl from Orchid Bay City, California. She'd rather spend her time with friends, skate-boarding or playing her guitar but somewhere along her early childhood, she became the youngest to be picked by some magical elders to be the next _Te Xuan Ze_ , the chosen one be the vessel to their magic and the stone between magic and humanity. She protects a magical "Veil" that makes magic invisible to common-folk. In FF, she has found a way outside her city to aid in the war against Fuse.

Here in this fic they don't know about each other's secret titles and just assume that this is a "family thing" from the other. They know just enough to understand what's going on when talk comes to banishment spells or cryptids.

Ray Ray is June's younger brother by three years.

Dexter is from Dexter's Lab, in Cartoon Network's MMORPG FusionFall he is a de-facto leader of the resistance against planet Fuse.

Fusion spawns would be gooey monsters created by planet Fuse to act as its army. "Fusions" in this case would be monsters created by mixing earth stuff with "Fusion Matter". google it ;P

I realize both of these shows are a bit unknown nowadays, but I've always thought a meetup between the two or fic with them would work well because they're both really energetic and positive characters, with lots on their shoulders. Just wanted to explore them as a small team on a mission to clean up fusion monsters after the war.


End file.
